Stories, analysis, highlights, and everything Yankees from an up & coming sports journalist.

A Day at the Stadium and A Subway Series Win

Wow. It was yet another great day at a Yankee game and another great win for the Bronx Bombers in the new house today. This afternoon the Yankees beat their cross-town rivals, the New York Mets, by a score of 4-0.

I had a blast today at Yankee Stadium, going to my second game in five days. My seats were actually in the same exact section I was in Tuesday night vs. the Phillies, just a couple of rows back. And today I went to the game with my older sister, not my dad.

It probably would have made sense to go to the game with my dad today, it being Father’s Day and all, but…it’s kind of hard to explain. My dad got the tickets for me on Tuesday while my sister got the tickets for today. So I went to the game with my dad on my birthday and my sister today.

Yeah. I think that about sums it up.

When we arrived at the Stadium this afternoon, TV cameras were all over the field. Tyler Pennington was filming his show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” He used the new house for a scene for his show. A whole bunch of his crew members came onto the field and I guess they are going to help someone, as they always do.

In another pre-game ceremony, the reigning Super Bowl M.V.P. Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints was behind home plate. He brought his son with him and Mark Teixeira eventually came out and shook his hand. Brees threw out the honorary first pitch and not long after that the game began.

David Wright led off the first with a single off Yankees’ starter CC Sabathia. I wasn’t surrounded by Mets fans, but their presence sure was felt. There were quite a few of them scattered throughout our section. I was worried that Sabathia wasn’t going to be on his game today, or nearly as sharp as he was when I saw him Tuesday night.

But Sabathia came back and got out of the frame with no harm done.

Johan Santana, the starter for the Mets, was just as brilliant out of the gate. Santana sat down the Yankees in order in the first, not allowing a hit. “This could be a legitimate pitcher’s duel,” I said to my sister. “CC and Johan were both set on cruise control in the first!”

Santana was equally as effective in the second as he was in the first, but ran into a brick wall in the third. He loaded the bases with Teixeira coming to the plate and nobody out. Dan Warthen, the Mets’ pitching coach, came out to talk to Santana. It was then I knew something was going to happen.

“Tex is going to do something here,” I said. “I know it…” I had a funny feeling; it’s hard to explain. The bases were loaded and for some reason I knew he was going to come up big in this spot.

And that he did.

Teixeira, batting from the right side of the plate, pulled a long fly ball to left field. Jason Bay ran, ran, and ran some more. Like the rest of us, he looked up and watched the ball fly out of Yankee Stadium for a grand slam home run, his 12th homer of the year.

“OHHHHH!!! GRAND SLAM! A GRAND SLAM!!! MARK TEIXEIRA!” I boisterously cheered. I couldn’t contain my excitement. It was the first time I had seen a Yankee hit a grand slam in-person since Enrique Wilson did it back on Aug. 7, 2003. Obviously it was a special moment, so I had the right to go a little crazy. I high-fived my sister and all of the other Yankee fans in our section.

As us Yankee fans celebrated the granny, the Mets fans suddenly went silent.

In the fourth inning, something amazing almost happened–almost. Derek Jeter was batting and he fouled off a pitch to his right. The ball popped up foul and it was heading directly for me and I mean DIRECTLY FOR ME.

I swear to God, I thought the ball was going to hit me in the face!

I stood up, got ready to catch it, and at the last second it hooked to my right. It landed about three seats over to my right and rolled underneath our row of seats and into the row in front of us. A man sitting right in front of my sister retrieved the foul ball. It was probably the closest I have ever gotten to a foul ball in a Major League Baseball game.

It would have been nice to get it, but…I fell just short of it. Maybe next time.

Sabathia continued to mow down the Mets into the seventh inning. He got through the seventh with relative ease and went on to complete the eighth. Right as the Mets were coming off the field after the top of the frame, the rains came. My sister actually ran to the concession stand to get me ice cream (in the little Yankee helmet!) and I wound up meeting her in the upper concourse.

I was getting drenched! Yankee Stadium, out of nowhere, became a site of torrential rain.

A lot of fans fled the Stadium but my sister and I wanted to stay. We weren’t going to let the rain ruin the rest of our day, so we stuck through the 22-minute rain delay and moved down to the main level concourse. During the delay they played highlights from 2009 season and postseason.

So while we were in the delay, we were at least entertained by the clips from the 2009 World Series Championship season. It was fun to watch that video with a bunch of Mets fans standing around. It makes me appreciate it so much more; I mean, I wasn’t even born the last time they won the World Series!

The ninth inning eventually came and the Yanks brought in Mariano Rivera to slam the door. Rivera got Reyes, Wright, and Ike Davis out to end the game–a 4-0 win over the Mets on the strength of a genius outing by Sabathia and visit to granny by Teixeira. And not just a 4-0 win, but a Subway Series victory over the Mets as well.

Another visit to the new house for me and another win.

Doing a lot of thinking on the way home, I came up with some statistics in terms of me attending games these last few years. I have noticed that the Yankees have won a lot of the games I have been to in recent times.

Maybe I should go to the games more often!

Dating back to 2007, the Yankees have won 12 of the last 12 games I have attended.

In games I have been to at the new Yankee Stadium, the Yankees are 7-0. Three of those seven wins featured pie at the end of the game.

In Subway Series games I have been to in my life, the Yankees are now 2-2.

The last time the Yankees lost a game I attended: July 7, 2007; it was Old Timer’s Day and they lost 2-1 to the LA Angels in 13 innings.

Please do not ask me for L/R or Day/Night splits. :p

And on one last note: Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Hope you guys had a wonderful and relaxing day!

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